The SPD

May 15, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Hype, Martin Schulz, Political Parties, Social Democracy, Socialism, SPD 1 Comment

You know, as in Shellacking, Pounding, Drubbing?

Or, if you prefer, look at them more as being Shaken, Prostrate and Debilitated.

At any rate, all this talk about the “Schulz effect” turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of Silliness, Prattle and Drivel. Because, well, what the comrades really got was a Scourge, a Pile-up, a Debacle.

Germany’s opposition SPD is nursing a stunning defeat in the state election in its North Rhine Westphalia heartland. In power here for most of the postwar period, the SPD were decimated, losing nearly 10% of their vote as Angela Merkel’s CDU soared.

“Leberhaken” in NRWWie cool ist Schulz?

The Turnaround Has Been Achieved

May 14, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Eurovision 2017, German, Germans, Germany, Kiev, Music Leave a comment

I didn’t think I would be seeing this in my lifetime, folks, but Germany did NOT get last place at the Eurovision song competition last night in Kiev – a century-long Eurovision tradition, as you know.

They came in second to last (thank you, Spain). I can hardly wait for next year’s show!

Ja! Deutschland ist nicht Letzter. Trotz der leichten Verbesserung ist es ein Debakel für die deutsche Delegation, die in unendlicher Arroganz mal wieder alles falsch gemacht hat, was man falsch machen konnte.

Solar Energy Is The Future

May 12, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Green energy, Renewable energy, Solar energy, Solarworld Leave a comment

That’s why big solar companies like Germany’s Solarworld are going broke right now. That’s so they can regroup or something for when the future finally does come around, I guess.

Or maybe it’s some international anti-renewable energy conspiracy. That’s always good to get folks hot and bothered. The endless subsidies were sabotaged or something, see? Or maybe, just maybe, solar power is a losing business proposition proposed down our throats from those enlightened ones above (pun intended). Hard to say for sure.

Ask the “Sun King” over at Solarworld (it’s good to be the Sun King): “Due to the ongoing price erosion and the development of the business, the company no longer has a positive going concern prognosis, is therefore over-indebted and thus obliged to file for insolvency proceedings.”

Leaving Las Vegas

May 11, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Asylum Seekers, Deportations, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Refugees, Websites Leave a comment

Only it’s Germany this time. And nobody’s really leaving here, either.

You don’t have to leave, of course, refugee folks. It’s just that we’d really, really, really like it if you would.

With deportations expensive and complicated, Germany launched a new website designed to help encourage migrants to return voluntarily to their home countries. Organizers are please with the resonance so far, the site currently getting up to six or seven hits a day.

In diesem Jahr sind bisher weniger Migranten freiwillig in ihre Heimat zurückgekehrt als noch im Vorjahr. Bund und Länder versuchen weiterhin eine schnellere und konsequentere Abschiebung durchzusetzen.

German Of The Day: Spitzensteuersatz

May 10, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Language, Tax Rates, Taxation Leave a comment

That means maximum tax rate. In Germany that’s 42 percent at the moment – and climbing.

But the cool thing about the maximum tax rate in Germany is that you don’t have to be a maximum earner to have to pay it. More and more regular folks are permitted to pay this killer rate – some 3.7 million Germans at the moment – and climbing. In 2004 it was 1.2 million taxpayers. Now that’s what I call Fortschritt (progress).

Unter Berücksichtigung der Zusammenveranlagung von Eheleuten betrifft dies damit 3,73 Millionen einkommensteuerpflichtige Personen. Damit unterliegen 6,4 Prozent aller Steuerpflichtigen dem Spitzensteuersatz von 42 Prozent, wie es in einer Antwort des Bundesregierung auf eine Anfrage der Linken im Bundestag heißt. 2004 fielen noch gut 1,2 Millionen Steuerpflichtige in diese Kategorie.

German Of The Day: Mediale Erfindung

May 8, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Horror, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Hype, Language, Martin Schulz, Media, Social Democracy, Socialism, SPD 3 Comments

That means medial invention. Take the Schulz effect, for instance. Please.

Remember the good old days when medial inventions used to last for years? You know, things like Waldsterben (the dying of the woods) or Rinderwahn (mad cow disease)? Now you’re lucky if you can get three months out of one (the Schulz effect, for instance, was created and released from the laboratory just this past February and officially died yesterday).

I dunno, I think it’s this young whippersnapper snowflake generation these days with all their wall-to-wall social media and instant gratification issues. No respect, I tell you. Well, kids, each generation gets the medial invention it deserves so this one’s for you. And you have no one else to blame but yourselves. Three months. Pitiful.

In February, Social Democratic chancellor candidate Martin Schulz was riding a wave of popularity. Now, his party has lost two state elections in a row and another state vote is looming on Sunday. Can he get his campaign back on track?

Alles ist Albigs Schuld – finden Schulz und die Bundes-SPD.

Germans Can’t Stop Laughing These Days

May 7, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Health, Laughter, Studies Leave a comment

This is a real shocker, folks. A new study indicates that 29 percent of Germans laugh less than five times a day or not at all.

Wow. They really seem to have made great progress here these past few years. I remember when it used to be 79 percent, or higher.

But, sadly, this is also an indication of the sorry state our troubled world is in: The study also shows that Germans are mostly amused by others’ bad luck (Schadenfreude).

Lachen ist gesund – ein Gemeinplatz. Doch wenn eine Krankenkasse jetzt 15 Minuten herzhaftes Lachen pro Tag empfiehlt, kann das sehr anstrengend sein. Dann sind wir doch lieber unlustig.

What Goes Around Comes Around

May 5, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Heconomy, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: German, Germans, Germany, SPD, Spies, Switzerland, Tax evasion, Taxation Leave a comment

What’s worse? Governments that openly deal in stolen information (Germany buying CDs from informants with lists of Germans having Swiss bank accounts) or Governments that spy on governments who do so?

Ha. Ha. Ha.

German investigators suspect that a mole spied for Swiss intelligence from inside a government office which was trying to catch German tax dodgers… Switzerland objects to the practice of buying data stolen from Swiss banks.

SPD empört über Steuer-Spitzeleien der Schweiz.

Google To Help German Solar Power Fans Find Areas In Germany With More Than Five Minutes Of Sunshine Per Day

May 4, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Google, Solar energy, Sunroof, Sunshine, Weather Leave a comment

Or per week. Per month? Anyway, they’re helping as best as they can.

Google’s Project Sunroof, which estimates whether homes get enough sunlight to switch over to solar power, is launching in Germany today. It’s the first time Sunroof has expanded outside the US, where it finally reached all 50 states earlier this year after launching in 2015.

Wer überlegt, auf einem Hausdach eine Solaranlage zu installieren, wüsste gerne, wie hoch die damit erzielten Einnahmen sein können. Auf einer von Google und E.ON eingerichteten Seite lassen sich die nun vorab abschätzen.

The Temporary Border Controls That Last And Last And Last

May 3, 2017 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Borders, EU, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Refugees 1 Comment

Germany will keep up its temporary border controls, thank you (they finally got it last year). And this despite Brussels ordering EU member states to do away with them.

Things are so much better now on Europe’s southern borders, these Eurocrats hiding in Belgian bunkers say, so drop your defenses already. We will give you six more months before you have to get rid of those awful things. Or else. Or else another six months, right?

Die EU-Kommission hat Deutschland erlaubt, die wegen der Flüchtlingskrise eingeführten Grenzkontrollen bis Ende November fortzuführen. Nach Angaben von EU-Innenkommissar Dimitri Avramapoulos erhielten Deutschland, Österreich, Dänemark, Schweden und Norwegen “ein letztes Mal” eine Frist sechs Monaten.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

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